Here's a question. What do you do when you have to add an important learning artifact to a student's literacy folder (that stays at school) and can't send it home to parents? Answer: how about a digital portfolio? Now, when the topic of digital portfolio arises amongst teacher friends, usually website creation and maintenance is what my instructional brethren think of. The problem with this? Usually the elementary teachers get pretty worried about how they are going to get students who have limited typing skills to set up and continually maintain a website. So, elementary teachers, the following tools are presented with you in mind.
Kidblog - Kidblog is a website that easily allows the teacher to set up individual blogs for each of his/her students. One of the nicest features of Kidblog is the fact that it automatically sets up a Blog Roll for the teacher of all of the students in the classroom. Additionally, parents can be invited into the classroom blogs and can post comments. Teachers have a variety of options with setting up the visibility and commenting/posting permissions of the blog.
In addition to sharing writing and blog posts, Kidblog is an awesome place to share digital images and video files created by the students. I have had the opportunity to work in my 1st grade son's classroom this year. We have been using Kidblog as a place to put digital images of handwritten assignments or drawings. We have also posted content that we created in other apps (30 Hands for example). The handy-dandy Kidblog app makes this super slick. Another nice feature of Kidblog is the fact that it is device agnostic and is primarily web based, meaning that you don't have to have an iPad to use this one.
The video below by Molly Miller is a 10 minute tutorial on how to get started with Kidblog. Here also is a link to a playlist of Kidblog for iPad tutorials that Wes Fryer made.
Kidblog - Kidblog is a website that easily allows the teacher to set up individual blogs for each of his/her students. One of the nicest features of Kidblog is the fact that it automatically sets up a Blog Roll for the teacher of all of the students in the classroom. Additionally, parents can be invited into the classroom blogs and can post comments. Teachers have a variety of options with setting up the visibility and commenting/posting permissions of the blog.
In addition to sharing writing and blog posts, Kidblog is an awesome place to share digital images and video files created by the students. I have had the opportunity to work in my 1st grade son's classroom this year. We have been using Kidblog as a place to put digital images of handwritten assignments or drawings. We have also posted content that we created in other apps (30 Hands for example). The handy-dandy Kidblog app makes this super slick. Another nice feature of Kidblog is the fact that it is device agnostic and is primarily web based, meaning that you don't have to have an iPad to use this one.
The video below by Molly Miller is a 10 minute tutorial on how to get started with Kidblog. Here also is a link to a playlist of Kidblog for iPad tutorials that Wes Fryer made.
Seesaw - The Seesaw app is one that I discovered recently thanks to my colleague Jonathan Wylie who shared this blog post with me from Larry Ferlazzo. Being a former elementary teacher he has a keen eye for what will work in an elementary setting. Seesaw is a digital journal that allows student to create a portfolio of work that they created. The app allows you to add images, videos, content from the camera roll or drawings that you create within the app. The app is set up to work well in either a multi device setting (1:1) or in a single device as it is easy to switch between student accounts. Another great feature for the little ones is that there is no URL, username, or password to remember and/or type - just a quick scan of a QR code brings the student into his/her classroom. Additionally, there is a parent feature that connects parents to their child and keeps them updated of posts that have been made to the child's digital journal via the separate parent app (iOS or Android) or web access. I found the video below initially on Larry Ferlazzo's EduBlog - you can find that post hyperlinked to his name above.
So yes, this blog post is a tool review. However, in my estimation they are very useful digital tools that help solve what is, in my mind, a bit of a problem; how do you continue to keep that line of communication about what is being learned in class open and how do you create opportunities for students to communicate their learning in their own words. This is extremely important in helping students develop a strong reflective practice (read more about it here) which, in turn, will lead to them becoming better learners.
Gina Rogers
Technology Consultant - GWAEA
Gina Rogers
Technology Consultant - GWAEA
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